Oh dear, what have I done

[nowty]

I was just looking at We buy any car.com and was surprised my dirty diesel was worth around £10k.

Also just had a nice £17k tax free dividend from one of my venture capital trusts.

And one of my credit cards wants to give £11k away in a cash transfer at a ridiculous low interest rate.

And my bank also wants to give me a £20k car loan at an equally low rate over 8 years.

I was then just pressing buttons on the Tesla website, like you do.

And...................



Well I was going to wait a couple of years or so till I get my pension lump sum, but........................

I haven't even test driven one, but then I never have with all the cars I've bought and the new one is always better than the last.

So please, Tesla owners, tell me I've done the right thing.

[Joeboy]

Good man,
When it's time to drop the hammer it's just the time. Done similar with four rolex's recently. The day just rolls around and it's time. Looking forward to hearing and seeing.
SWMBO & I were speaking about EV's today. Love our leaf but could be convinced on an upgrade. Interested on arrival time/factory of birth etc.... Once again, well done that man!

[Stinsy]

How much for self driving?
What is the delivery date?

Looking forward to your first tour of the north coast 500!

[Joeboy]

Stinsy nailed it. My doors open if u NC500, no worries. Might even let ya charge while the bbq's on.

[nowty]

How much for self driving?
What is the delivery date?

Looking forward to your first tour of the north coast 500!

Well the website just said September. Day or year, I don't know !

I paid for the FULL self driving capability, £6,800. Again another reason I am going for it, I experienced my friends autopilot mode in a Model S, 3 years ago and I just could not believe it. I don't think any other manufacturer is anywhere even close 3 years later.

Oh yeah, I recall my father doing the far north Scottish coast road in his 70's, maybe will do a round the UK trip.

Plus now I will have enough range to get to the Ripple Picnic and back without charging.

[Oliver90owner]

Good on ya! Enjoy.

I just could not justify tying up over fifty five grand on a car. I just don’t do enough miles to make it worthwhile. My 25 year old 106 has recently been returning 70 mpg on a few long runs and the 607 will be towing a loaded trailer to Drumnadrochit (about 480 miles) in a few weeks time.

Only if I strike lucky on the premium bonds, or similar, will I consider a new BEV at that sort of money. Furthermore, I would still need a ‘run-around hack’ to carry cement, gravel, 2.4 and 2.7m fence posts, fence panels, garden compost engines, tools, etc. My 106 has not had its rear seat squab fitted since I got it 2 1/2 years ago and often has a roof rack in situ.

[nowty]

And it might mean I have to buy some more of Ripple WT2 to help charge it.

Three other things swung it,

1) An insurance quote for it was not much more than my existing car. I know that's probably irrelevant with the cost of the car but it did surprise me how little difference there was.
2) Another renewable venture capital trust "Ventus" I have is selling up and returning capital within the next 6 to 9 months so any financing I need will only be short term.
3) Also, last month I met my cousin who I had not seen for 30 years at a family funeral and she has just upgraded her 1 year old Tesla Model 3 to a long range version and she just loves it. Previously she only drove Range Rovers !

So a few things have come together, maybe you could say similar to an alignment of planets.

[Joeboy]

Where are they with miles per charge these days? It went up a couple of times I think? Wonder if that was changes in packs, software or both?

Looking forward to hearing about the self driving capability. Interesting times!

[Mr Gus]

Would have held off on the full self driving nowty, (until certain of it's efficiency) ..you can test that upgrade element having tested it out for close to 48hrs. on a refundable trial.
Fyi the new full self drive "model" proposed but not fleshed out yet is buy, plus subscription based handy for the long trip to foreign lands for a few weeks a year maybe but for us that would be wasted as a permanent fix.
It seems there is a lot of fsd testing for the states, but little detail on how it's going with European & UK roundabouts (though there are a few in the states it seems from recent videos).

Wife enjoys driving far too much to use "Bing bong" mode (basic autopilot "assist") I have to nag her

The easy access ought be a 2 seat thing (catches myself & the kiddo out)

Wife & daughter drove from the South coast to fens edge, to get away for a few days, could have done it in one trip but chooses to charge at Dartford each way, ..on the way down as she was going to Bournemouth & Brighton & needed "to check her head" as it was unfamiliar infrastructure & on the way back because she was taking me to the monthly cidery upon her return & I had fencing panels in her charging spots
Successful top up sips from a couple of 7kWh chargers inbetween as wife + kiddo travelled around, I must be a masochist as I still maintain being lost (chargepoint wise) is good for ev battery confidence to get rid of range anxiety.

Did you remember to put in someones tesla code prior to ordering?

The only hang up I'm left with is being the only people we know who opted for el-cheapo tesla with the new battery variant, fast approaching the 8000 miles production carbon footprint marker, we have no-one to compare the success or otherwise of the new battery chemistry with versus driving & charging styles as we put miles on.

Where will you be picking it up from ? (guessing it will be bluewater)

If so, likely it will be in the gloom of the multi storey car park, take a decent led torch & a mobile phone camera to go over & record the body panels at hand over, so you can get any paint scuffs or dinks sorted promptly.

Did you look at any other brands?

[Joeboy]

Mr Gus, how is reliability and build quality? I ask as US stuff is not normally the best. Also heard a few early ownership failures on the new gen Leafs and spoke to a lassie who's land rover hybrid died within a week and they can't get it to talk or wake up. She opted for replacement vehicle and all ok now but at last of hearing the old one was still fully failed and much headscratching going on at dealership.. Makes me wonder who is top of pile for longevity of production line and QA in these days of EV ownership. Model 3 must be quite high on that list? What range do you get?